The Loam foundry room at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, in east London. The Foundry made its first ever online store with Tictail in 2013. Photograph: David Levene

Swedish e-commerce startup Tictail has announced an $8m Series A fundraising round to support its expansion in the US.

Tictail lets business owners set up online shops free of charge, leading Wired magazine to call it “Tumblr for e-commerce”. It hit headlines in November after pairing with Britain’s oldest manufacturing company, the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, to launch the latter’s first online store.

The round includes the first investment the teenage entrepreneur Nick D’Aloisio has made since his start-up Summly was bought by Yahoo in 2013 for a reported $30m. The Australian-born Briton, 18, is one of four strategic investors the company named, alongside Scott Bellsky, the CEO and founder of digital portfolio firm Behance.

“When we structured our Series A, we had a fantastic opportunity to choose who we would work with,” said Tictail CEO and cofounder Carl Waldekranz. “We try and choose people who will bring something beyond their investment.

“Nick is a friend of mine, and we’ve been speaking a long time, long before he sold Summly to Yahoo,” Waldekranz added. “I felt he understood where we were… I can call [him] up whenever I want and we can have a conversation about Tictail.”

With the investment, Tictail plans to open an office in New York City with its eyes set on the US market. Waldecranz, who spoke to the Guardian from the company’s new premises on Broadway and Broome street, said that the company’s previous user growth had come mainly from word-of-mouth, so “it would be unwise to spend our money on anything else than building the product.”

“We’ve always considered Tictail to be more than a tool, it’s a community for us. What we’re doing next year is connecting the community much more, and bringing the merchants closer to the consumers.”